Duffy Daugherty’s ground-breaking teams
Visit my home page, TomShanahan.Report
Read Kirkus Reviews on “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.”
Here are purchase links to my books.
Buy me a coffee: If you enjoy learning college football integration untold stories, consider a donation through Venmo to help me fund my website.
Thomas Shanahan | @Thomas-Shanahan-23
****
What is a Spartan? A poem by Michigan State Academic All-American Pat Gallingah
WHAT IS A SPARTAN? By Pat Gallinagh – YouTube
EPISODE 24: The Game of the Century’s two quarterbacks, Notre Dame Terry Hanraatyy and Michigan State’s Jimmy Raye, share reflection on the 60th anniversary of the epic showdown that drew a record TV audience. The 10-10 contributed the game’s last place in college football history.
EPISODE 23: Many untold stories revealing Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s college football integration leadership can be traced to the remarkable life of his Syracuse teammate, Wilmeth Sidat-Singh. Daugherty observed discrimination against Sidat-Singh, a Black quarterback forced to sit out a 1937 game at Maryland, as well as another teammate, Marty Glickman, a halfback and world-class sprinter pulled for his Jewish faith from competing in the 1936 Nazi Berlin Olympics. Sidat-Singh lost his life in World War II serving with the Tuskegee Airmen. Scott Pitoniak and Rick Burden tell Sidat-Singh’s story and impact on Daugherty’s coaching career in their book, “INVISIBLE NO MORE.”
EPISODE 22: THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GAME OF THE CENTURY, PART IV: Nebraska’s Johnny Rodgers and Oklahoma’s Greg Pruitt discuss the 1971 Game of the Century and their coaches from Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s coaching tree. Daugherty’s fingerprints are on both the 1966 and 1971 Games of the Century.
EPISODE 21: THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1966 GAME OF THE CENTURY, PART iii: Michigan State players Bob Apisa, Kale Ane and Lucy Wedemeyer discuss Duffy Daugherty’s influence on Hawaii and three Hawaiians playing in the 1966 Game of the Century, Bob Apisa, Dick Kenney and Charlie Wedemeyer. With new space-age technology, it was the first live broadcast of a football game in Hawaii.
***
EPISODE 20: THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1966 GAME OF THE CENTURY, Part II
My guests are Notre Dame’s Rocky Bleier and Michigan State’s Clinton Jones. Bleir is a Vietnam veteran and winner of four Super Bowl rings with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jones is a College Football Hall of Famer who went on a Vietnam USO Tour as a Minnesota Vikings player.
***
EPISODE 19: THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1966 GAME OF THE CENTURY, Part I
My guests are Notre Dame center George Goeddeke, second-team All-American and seven-year NFL veteran, and Michigan State defensive tackle Pat Gallinagh, second-team All-Big Ten and Academic All-American.
— Click here for the video:
— “It was the hardest hitting game I have ever been in, pro and college,” George Goeddeke.
— The voice of Keith Jackson from a time capsule opens the podcast introducing “one of the classics of collegiate football” back when Michigan State-Notre Dame was an annual rivalry. Listen to learn about the record TV audience, the buildup to the game, the high number of draft picks and All-Americans on the field, the train trip from South Bend to Lansing, Nick Eddy’s injury disembarking, the influence of the Detroit Catholic League high schools, Gallinagh and Goeddeke scoffing at the idea of Alabama’s smallish lineup competing with the Spartans or the Irish and, yes, another Bubba Smith story.
Read more here:
Duffy’s 1985 Knoxville response to Bear Bryant – Tom Shanahan Report This story includes weekly AP poll voting revealing the buildup to the November 19 showdown.
A lecture on Michigan State’s Duffy history – Tom Shanahan Report
EPISODE 18: BLACK HISTORY MONTH AT THE APEX EVA PERRY REGIONAL LIBRARY
Click here for video: Milestone Minutes Episode 18
Thanks to Enloe High junior Quin Matthis, a junior in Enloe’s vaunted TV/Audio program.
Highlights noted with time marks below
— Introductions from Tom Shanahan.
— 5:00, on 1964 college football integration tipping points from North Carolina schools and individuals.
— 8:45, Quote on history from Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough
— 10:00, Quote from Rev. Jesse Jackson on Michigan State leadership and Jimmy Raye.
— 12:58, Jimmy Raye on his journey from Fayetteville to Michigan State; 18:00, on Michigan State as first fully integrated team to play in the South against North Carolina in 1964; 20:55, on Dick Proebstle’s QB coaching; 22:00, on Jimmy’s first restaurant breakfast away from Jim Crow South at Kellogg Center; 23:30, climbing the depth chart; 26:00, 1966 Rose Bowl; 31:20, Game of the Century.
— 32:19 Michigan State lining up against Notre Dame in the Game of the Century with 20 Black players, 11 Black starters, two Black team captains, College Football Hall of Famers George Webster and Clinton Jones, and Jimmy Raye as the South’s first Black QB to win a national title compared to Notre Dame roster with one Black player, Alan Page.
— 32:55, explaining Duffy Daugherty ignored quota limitations on Black athletes followed by other schools.
— 33:40, on North Carolina coach Jim Tatum (1956-58) and scheduling the 1962, 1963, 1964 MSU-UNC games.
— 36:30, Gary Dilley, Michigan State 1964 Olympic swimming silver medalist of Huntington, Indiana, on MSU’s integrated housing and Gene Washington of segregated Houston as his roommate; 38:25, on MSU President John Hannah; 39:30, on College Football Hall of Famer and all-time character Bubba Smith; 42:50, on Dilley’s football-swimming workout bet with Bubba Smith.
— 44:35, more on Jim Tatum’s leadership.
— 45:50, Bear Bryant/1970 USC-Alabama game fairytale at expense of the true 1960s pioneers.
— 46:25, Award-winning historian Ken Burns on history tied into a nice bubble versus telling a longer, factual story.
— 47:15, Tom on Bob Grant; 48:00, Jimmy Raye on Bob Grant.
— 51:00, Charlie Young on NC State experience; 55:40 on Clyde Chesney’s influence; 58:00 on playing for Lou Holtz; 59:20 on racial experiences in Texas while playing for the Dallas Cowboys; 1:01:30 Charlie on the Four Stallions with Willie Burden, Roland Hooks and Stan Fritts.
— 1:04:30 Tom on the second generation as a result of opportunities.
— 1:05:00 Tracy Pasteur, an executive as Cisco in Raleigh, on her father Ernie Pasteur, who rode Duffy’s Underground Railroad to Michigan State from Beaufort, N.C.
— 1:09:00 Jimmy Raye on the induction of the 1965 and 1966 Michigan State national championship teams into the Michigan State Hall of Fame with an assist from MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz.
— Closing quotes with quotes from Jimmy Raye, Dennis Thomas, Gene Smith, David Halberstam and Lane Demas.
***
EPISODE 17: New Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith has re-tapped Duffy Daugherty’s historic Hawaiian Pipelines with two 2024 recruits from Honolulu high schools, St. Louis’ Rustin Young and Punahou’s Kekai Burnett. They joined me with MSU grad Lia Kamana, a Hawaii KITV journalist, and Michigan State’s Bob Apisa, the Godfather of Polynesian football players.
My stories after Rustin Young and Kekai Burnett committed. Click for Part I and Part II.
***
Scroll down to Ken Burns at Episode 7.
This is from the Greater Lansing Historical Society
Click here for the video from 2014
***
Duffy Daugherty’s Milestone Minutes celebrates the Michigan State coach as the most influential leading college football integration. Daugherty’s 1960s teams were the first fully integrated rosters in college football. They No two books better tell the national story than RAYE of LIGHT and THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
***
EPISODE 16
If Michigan State doesn’t tell its story of leading college football integration, who will tell it for us? Listen here as I explain how Wake Forest told its story about Bob Grant and a year later the school and Grant earned a national honor from the NCAA. Duffy Daugherty’s 1960s Michigan State teams were college football’s first fully integrated rosters, but the school has failed to take credit for Daugherty’s leadership. Trails were blazed, thanks to Duffy Daugherty’s courage.
***
EPISODE 15
The 1954 season marks the 70 years since Duffy Daugherty was promoted to head coach and assembled a staff that changed the face of the game. Duffy’s assistants and former players followed his blueprint of ignoring unwritten quotas limiting Black athletes. The protegees include Dan Devine, Frank Kush, Bob Devaney, Chuck Fairbanks, Bill Yeoman, Sonny Grandelius and Earle Edwards. The story is told in THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
Click below to watch video.
Milestone Minutes Episode 15 (youtube.com)
***
EPISODE 14
Michigan State College Football Hall of Famer Clinton Jones relives his milestone touchdown in 1964 at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium. Michigan State was the first fully integrated team to play in the South.
You can read more about the 1964 Michigan State game at North Carolina here.
***
EPISODE 13
The Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Michigan State’s Sherman Lewis on June 29 with its NFL Awards of Excellence for is career in the NFL as an assistant and offensive coordinator. A year ago, Jimmy Raye was honored in the inaugural class. Duffy Daugherty’s legacy is two for two. Note in the COMMITTED graphic Lewis is wearing one of his four Super Bowl rings (right side).
***
Here’s a bonus video from the Raleigh Sports Club. NC State football coach Earle Edwards was one of the former Michigan State assistant coaches who followed Duffy Daugherty’s leadership at providing more opportunities for Black athletes once they became a head coach.
Edwards, a Michigan State assistant from 1949 to 1953, was NC State’s head coach from 1954 to 1970. He revived the Wolfpack program in the 1950s and desegregated it in the 1960s. NC State historian Tim Peeler and NC State pioneer Charley Young joined me to speak on March 8, 2023, at the Raleigh Sports Club.
***
EPISODE 12
NFL 360, a film division of the NFL Network, highlights Jimmy Raye and Duffy Daugherty during Black History Month. The documentary is titled, “The Jimmy Raye Project: A Story of a Man who Carved a Path for Black Players and Coaches”. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy considered Raye a mentor as a Black college quarterback and Black coach. The director/producer is Osahon Tongo, a former Georgia Tech player.
***
EPISODE 11
The Spartans’ 1962 season marked the first time an Underground Railroad passenger earned All-Big Ten honors and the arrival of the 1962 freshmen class. As seniors in 1965, they won an undefeated Big Ten championship along with UPI and National Football Foundation national titles.
***
THE 1967 NFL DRAFT that changed the face of pro football.
EPISODE 10: Four of the top eight picks in the 1967 NFL draft were Michigan State players.
***
KENNETH WALKER III deserves the 2021 Heisman Trophy.
EPISODE 9: If Kenneth Walker wins the Heisman, I hope he has some words recalling George Webster and the 1966 Heisman Trophy voting.
***
CORRECTING ESPN on the record of Duffy Daugherty’s legacy
EPISODE 8: Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty, whose 1960s teams were college football’s first fully integrated rosters, was egregiously and inaccurately cast in ESPN’s 150th college football anniversary series as a coach who recruited Black athletes merely to win football games.
——————
A conversation with Ken Burns, thanks to the National Sports Media Association.
EPISODE 7: Ken Burns (click on video below) on a Michigan State football as an important story to tell and to understand. And announcement at the end about Raye of Light being adapted into a screen play.
——————
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE VIDEOS
These video stories are on Michigan State’s leading role in college football integration and taken from “Raye of Light.” Duffy Daugherty’s 1960s teams formed college football’s first fully integrated rosters, blazing a trail for the rest of the nation to follow. Daugherty recruited players escaping segregation in the South through a network of southern Black high school coaches. Sportswriters sometimes called Duffy’s teams the Underground Railroad, a respectful nod of bravery to Harriett Tubman. Michigan State fight song snippet played with permission from the school.
Click here for lengthy list of Duffy Daugherty’s Michigan State Great Northward Football Migration milestones.
——————
JIMMY RAYE, the most socially significant Spartan from the Underground Railroad teams.
EPISODE 6: Jimmy Raye (click on video below) was a pioneer Black quarterback in the 1960s and a pioneer Black college coach as well as in the NFL.
——————————-
GEORGE WEBSTER, the Greatest Spartan
EPISODE 5: George Webster (click on video below) remains the “Greatest Spartan of Them All.” Notre Dame All-American linebacker Jim Lynch, the 1966 Maxwell Award winner and 12-year NFL veteran with the Kansas City Chiefs, says Webster should have won the 1966 Heisman Trophy.
————————–
BIG TEN COACH OF THE YEAR AWARD
EPISODE 4 (click on video below): The curious choice of Big Ten football naming its Coach of the Year Award for Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. It should be for pioneers — Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty, Minnesota’s Murray Warmath or Northwestern’s Dennis Green.
————————-
BUBBA SMITH
EPISODE 3: Bubba Smith (click on video below), the most famous of Spartan of Duffy’s Underground Railroad teams. The inimitable Bubba loved a parade.
——
MICHIGAN STATE’S UNAPPRECIATED HISTORY
EPISODE 2 (click on video below): Why isn’t Michigan State’s history better known?
–——————-
DUFFY DAUGHERTY
EPISODE 1 (click on video below): The foundation of Michigan State’s Great Northward Football Migration.
—-
Prologue episode from NMSA: Tom Shanahan reading from Raye of Light at the 2019 National Media Sports Association Book Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C.
***
Underground Railroad Minutes are videos from Tom Shanahan discussing the historical impact of Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s 1960s Underground Railroad teams. The Spartans set new standards for unprecedented numbers of Black athletes, Black starters, Black team captains and Black quarterbacks. Daugherty’s effort was aided by southern Black high school coaches laying the tracks, sending him their athletes to escape segregation. Michigan State’s success, including back-to-back 1965 and 1966 national championships, led to Alabama desegregating by 1971 and to USC to recruit beyond a half-dozen or so Black athletes. Tom is an award winning sports writer and author of “Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans and college football integration.” The video information is taken from the pages of “Raye of Light.”
-30-
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.
— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive
— I will debate anybody, anytime, anywhere Duffy Daugherty led college football integration
— My FWAA first-place story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and segregation
***
I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.
— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.
— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”
***
PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books
— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.
— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.
PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books
— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here.
— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Tags: Apex Library, Charley Young, Gary Dilley, Jimmy Raye
